2-D frost action modeling using the segregation potential of soils

Abstract

The segregation potential, SP, has been used to solve two-dimensional frost heave problems. SP-based approach to predict frost heave has been extended to 2-D problems such as freezing around chilled pipelines buried in unfrozen ground. It requires, however, the input of non-linear stress-strain-strain rate-temperature relations for characterizing the behavior of the frozen soil and an incrementally deforming mesh. Simulations of actual field tests using burial chilled pipelines were successfully performed with the newly developed 2D-SP frost action model and provide distributions of ice content, stresses and displacements. Assuming a bi-linear stress-strain relationship for the frozen soil, parametric studies have shown that frost heave was more sensitive to post-yield characteristics of the frozen soil than to the magnitude of its yield stress.